Love Team
by majinga
Summary: AU. 7th year. Find out how real can things get between the bickering pair. Read and Review :D


**Author: **majinga

**Story title: **Love Team

**Fandom/s:** Harry Potter

**Pairing: **Draco Malfoy/ Hermione Granger

**Disclaimer: **JK Rowling owns the characters and the original story, while I own the plot!

**A/N: **I had to write this fic… the plot has been bothering me for a few nights now. Couldn't get a proper sleep because of the damned thing!

* * *

Draco Malfoy stared off into the dark blue night. The stars shone brightly, but he found watching them twinkle the least comforting activity at that moment. He had been waiting for almost 30 minutes and she hasn't showed up yet. He had sent her an owl that afternoon, asking her to meet him on top of the Astronomy Tower, 8:00 that evening.

After everything that had happened, he was sure that everything would turn out fine. War was over and the Light had won the battle. The bad guys were already condemned and sent to Azkaban. Luckily, his father made the right decision by turning against the Dark Lord in the nick of time. The Order of the Phoenix had surprisingly accepted the Malfoy family with open arms and even offered them to stay at 12 Grimmauld Place for their safety.

The young Malfoy had even become a constant company of the muggle-born witch he once hated. She was the only one of the Golden Trio who was rational enough not to pick any fights every chance they had. With both their skill and intelligence, and his extensive knowledge in the dark arts, the two have become an effective fighting tandem during the war.

When it was over, he admitted to himself that he wanted to be more than her partner in the battlefield and more than her friend. Classes have finally resumed and the two started dating secretly. Both of them never spoke to their peers about it, especially Malfoy. His family may have been an ally of the Light Side but his father was still conservative. Lucius Malfoy forbade his son to marry or even date a half-blood, or worse a muggle-born witch.

Just the night before, at a party his parents threw, his father tried to set him up with some witch. He knew that he was under his father's watchful eye so he tried to act accordingly and just flirt back with her. It crushed his heart to see his girlfriend hurt with what she was seeing, but he had no choice. He could not risk his father discovering their relationship.

* * *

Hermione was confused. Why did he owl her to meet-up? Weren't they already over? No, he didn't say it, but it just looked like it. She wasn't that dense not to understand the whole scenario she saw during the party.

During the party the Malfoy family threw, in celebration of Harry Potter's victory, she saw and over-heard them. Lucius introduced his only son to a stunningly beautiful blonde girl. Her name was Ambrose Spencer, a witch who was around their age and of course, also of pureblood descent. His father had hinted to them oh so subtly that he wanted the two to go out and become an official couple. She cringed at his words and distanced herself from them. She watched them while he flirted with her the whole night. He tried to catch her eye discreetly and sent her apologetic looks but she ignored them. She couldn't stand what she saw, so she excused herself from the party and retreated back to the dormitories.

Since that night, she tried her very best to take no notice and avoid him. She knew it was all over and she's not the type who doesn't have to be told twice.

Now, why did he have to ask her to go up the tower? At that moment, she was actually deliberating if she would go or not. It would be a long walk up to the Astronomy Tower and besides she still had a lot of homework to finish, then she still had to help Harry and Ron to get theirs done. She thought, sighing to herself. She looked at her watch. It was already 8:30. If she showed up now, he would surely be sore with her.

* * *

He groaned in despair. Almost an hour had passed and it didn't take a genius to know that she was still mad at him. Not showing up at their tryst was a proof. He sighed and turned away from the balcony. He was about to leave when he heard the sound of light foot steps, running. As the sounds drew nearer, he saw who had just arrived the entrance on the other end. It was her. She was breathless from running, her wild curls in disarray. Her sweat rolled down from her temples to the sides of her face. He faced her as she walked towards him.

"I thought you'd never come." He told her quietly. "But I'm afraid you're an hour late and I already have no time for this. You obviously didn't want to be here anyway." His eyes were cold and calculating, careful not to show her what he really felt.

"I didn't run all the way to listen to your theatrics. What do you want from me, Malfoy?"

"If that's the case then you shouldn't have come late."

Hermione rolled her eyes in annoyance. "Forgive me if I thought that this was just one of your sick jokes. Besides, we're over since last night, remember?"

"Over? Who told you that? What are you talking about?" Malfoy looked at her skeptically.

"No need to hide anything from me. You could just tell me that you're already betrothed to a witch your father chose. And I'll walk away just like that. I'll spare you the drama."

"Ah… so that's what's bothering you." He paused and thought carefully of what he was about to say. "I hope you're aware that it's still me, no one else, not my parents, who'll have the last say when it comes to who I want to be with. And no, we're not yet over until we have come to a decision. You made one on your own, so that doesn't count."

Hermione looked at him squarely in the eye, ignoring what he said about the status of their relationship. "Yes, I'm aware. But because you're such a good son you'll do what your father bids you to."

His jaws clenched. "Then I guess you don't know me well enough. I know what I want and I certainly do know how to get it."

"And how are you so sure that things will go your way?" Her eyes narrowed, looking at him challengingly.

"Because, I'll do everything in my power to get it. I want only you and I'm damn sure I'll have you." She was at a loss for words and just stared at him open-mouthed. "I really do want you, Granger. I know you know that." His voice this time was gentle as he reached out to caress her cheek.

She pulled away. "Stop playing mind-games with me. Can't we just end this? Right now, I'm trying my best not to fall deeper in-love with you because in the end, I know that I'll be the one left broken beyond repair and I don't want that to happen."

"Don't be afraid to trust me, Hermione. I swear to you, I'll never leave you. I'll never hurt you."

She stayed silent for a long time and walked over to the balcony, weighing up things. She stared out to the forbidden Forest and began to speak. "Please don't say those words and just put me out of my misery. I really do love you, Draco but we can't continue on like this."

The cold evening air blew and she felt the chill. She held on to her jacket tighter. Suddenly, she felt a pair of strong arms envelope her from behind. His embrace gave her an adequate amount of heat for her to feel warm again. She got a whiff of his perfume, a soothing mixture of sandalwood and cinnamon. He pulled her closer to his chest and rested his chin on top of her head and murmured loud enough for both of them to hear. "I'm sorry but I just can't."

After a moment he leaned and whispered to her." I can never let you go. I was never destined for anyone but you." She turned her head to look up at him. She met his dark grey eyes and gazed at it each other. Slowly, they leaned to each other, attempting to close off the distance between their lips. Both of them stopped when they realized that their lips were barely an inch away. They stayed like that for a moment, while looking into each other's eyes.

* * *

"And… CUT!" The director yelled at them. "That was absolutely perfect, guys. It looked really convincing." Harry beamed, giving his actors a thumb's up. He was the one who was assigned to direct their movie for their film-making project. Ron turned off the video camera, and called the director over to watch as he played-back the scene they just shot. While the crew composed of the rest of their group mates, Pansy and Blaise, plus Ginny applauded.

"Convincing my ass, Potter…" Draco growled, obviously annoyed. He had quickly let her go when he heard the cue. It was inappropriate and embarrassing for a Malfoy to touch a filthy mudblood, no matter what the circumstances were. He was in a foul mood because they had to do the scene at least four times just to _perfect_ it. On top of all that, he felt odd and uncomfortable to be in such proximity with her. It was bugging him so much.

"That was fabulous… I never thought we'd actually pass Muggle Studies." Pansy said, trying to support the Slytherin and at the same time trying to stay in the good graces of her other group-mates from Gryffindor.

"Never knew film-making could be this fun." Blaise said to no one in particular and winked cheekily at Draco who just glared and flashed him a finger. It was absolutely enjoyable teasing him, the dark boy thought. Both of them, the mudblood and his friend were blushing furiously when the scene ended. He never knew until now, the effect they had on each other.

"Who wrote that stupid story? Of all genres Professor Norwood taught us, why exactly do we have to do Romance-Drama? Can't we just do Horror or Suspense-Thriller?

Pansy spoke up. "It's the easiest of all. It was Blaise and I who wrote the story and script, but Weasley over there," pointing to the red-headed girl speaking with Hermione,"interfered. She revised almost the whole script."

Malfoy's eyes narrowed into slits and his face darkened. "She's dead meat." He said as he stood up and walked over to them.

* * *

Meanwhile, Hermione muttered a string of incoherent curses when the camera stopped rolling. How could have she been so stupid to accept the responsibility? If it didn't have anything to do with her grades and requirement for graduation, there would be no way in hell she was acting in a movie opposite her mortal enemy. If it weren't for her grades, she wouldn't let that stupid egocentric ferret lay a finger on her.

"Jeez… Hermione. Stay cool." Ginny said as she neared her friend.

"How can I be cool?" her voice rose and her eyes flashing with anger. She was angry with herself, and was letting it out on the younger girl. "You told me you'd help to make things easier for me? What have you done?!?!"

The younger girl just looked at her. "Didn't you know? I did my best to revise the script they wrote. It was horrible."

"Really now… it didn't seem like it. I still had to put up with that miserable ferret touching me."

* * *

Draco walked over to the two Gryffindor girls, glowering at the red-head girl. "You're the one responsible for this shit?"

The girl faced him and laughed derisively. "If you're talking about the script, yes I am. Both of you should actually thank me and not bite my head off. Here, read the original script those Slytherins wrote." She handed Hermione the copy of the _unrevised _script.

She took the script and read it silently. After some time, her face went as red as beet and she dropped the script to the ground. She was extremely appalled at what she read.

Draco smirked at her nastily and picked up the script. He read it silently and also went red after reading a few lines. His jaw dropped. Like his co-star, he dropped the script to the ground and stared disbelievingly to a now smirking Ginny.

"So Draco… Don't you think that the original version is much better?" Pansy asked innocently, her dark eyes gleaming mischievously, while Blaise and Ginny snickered.

Harry, seeing the commotion and the original script on the ground, went over to them. "Do you guys want to retake the scene and use the original script instead?" Ron, having read the script, blanched.

"No need." The two quickly answered in unison.

* * *

**A/N: **REVIEW… please. Tell me what you think about it.


End file.
